Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.142

c12.142

One thing which needs to be stressed in connexion with the sculptural art of the Harappā civilization is the complete lack of any monumental or public compositions – a situation comparable with the absence of public inscriptions. If the sculptures, or any of them, represent deities, then they can have graced only private shrines; if individuals, they can have played no part in any state ritual. And in the whole field of Harappā art this privacy, almost secrecy, obtains, and one has an uncomfortable impression of cities of forbiddingly blank walls behind which wealth is hoarded and jealously guarded.